Second-time leader of the free world Donald J. Trump is reportedly open to the idea of Elon Musk or Oracle head honcho Larry Ellison, among others, buying TikTok. But there’s a catch. In return for oiling the wheels of the deal, Trump thinks the US government should get half of TikTok.
Bloomberg reports that President Trump indicated his approval for Musk or Ellison to snap up TikTok at a White House event yesterday. “What I’m thinking about saying to somebody is buy it and give half to the United States of America, half, and we’ll give you the permit, and they’ll have a great partner,” Trump said.
The immediate point is to allow TikTok to comply with a recent Supreme Court ruling upholding a earlier lower court decision to uphold a law effectively banning TikTok from the US, essentially due to security concerns springing from its Chinese ownership. Selling TikTok to a US person, persons or entity would solve that problem, obviously.
Signing half of TikTok over to the US government in the process is a typically Trumpian spin on that solution. Never does the President turn down an opportunity for a bit of grift.
“You have an asset that has no value or has a trillion-dollar value,” Trump said. “It all depends on whether or not the United States gives the permit.” The implication there is that the US government deserves a cut because in allowing TikTok to operate, it gives the social media app value.
But then that could apply to almost anything the government allows to operate. The net result regarding TikTok specifically would be the rather odd scenario of the US government getting involved in the ownership of big tech and social media.
Although Trump’s broader political positioning does admittedly defy easy generalizations, state ownership of major social media surely doesn’t sit comfortably with his unambiguously pro-business agenda.
For the record, TikTok went offline briefly in the US over the weekend before Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office, bequeathing TikTok a 75 day extension to comply with the new law.
It’s not actually clear that Trump has the authority to do that. But if Trump’s executive order concerning TikTok were to be disputed in the courts, by time that’s escalated up to the Supremes, as seems inevitable, the whole circus could well be over anyway.
Bloomberg reports that TikTok owner ByteDance remains firm in its resolve not to sell. But some obsevers think that a deal to acquire the social media platform minus its apparently “coveted” content algorithm could be a goer.
Indeed, among other potential suitors is none other than uber YouTuber MrBeast, who Bloomberg says is part of a group of US investors who announced a bid earlier this week.
Exactly where this all ends is anyone’s guess. In normal times, one might assume that the likes of Musk, for instance, owning both X and TikTok could be a monopoly concern for antitrust authroities. But given Musk’s current close relationship with Trump, presumably that wouldn’t apply.
It’s likewise unclear how serious Trump is about the US government ending up with a stack. I guess all will be known within 75 days. Or will it?
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